Picture and other fun stuff

Hey look, Kyri has another photo. Maybe it's two in two days to make up for none for a month!


This time I took the photo on the q-snaps. I haven't worked on anything beyond the area of my qsnaps recently, and this saves me having to figure out my tension again, and also means you get closeups. The photos a bit washed out, but it's not bad. Mostly I've got grass done tonight, but I am proud of getting the box around the in-text sheep done and the stems of the flowers down on the grass.

I'm so tired...I need sleep. Before I go, here's a wonderful quote by St John of Kronstadt (lived only a few hundred years ago) on illness:

"Bear any illness bravely, and do not merely not become despondent, but on the contrary, rejoice, if you can, in your illness. You would ask me what there is for you to rejoice at when you are racked all over with pain? Rejoice that the Lord has sent you this temporary chastisement in order to cleanse your soul from sins. 'For whom the Lord loves He chastens' (Heb. 12:6). Rejoice in the fact that now you are not gratifying those passions which you would have gratified had you been in good health; rejoice that you are bearing the cross of sickness, and that therefore you are treading the narrow and sorrowful way leading to the kingdom of heaven. Maladies in our eyes only appear painful, unpleasant and terrible. It is seldom that any one of us during the time of sickness represents to himself the profit which his illness brings to his soul; but in God's all wise and most merciful Providence, not a single malady remains without some profit to our soul. Sicknesses in the hands of Providence are the same as bitter medicines for our soul, curing its passions, its bad habits and inclinations. Not a single malady sent to us shall return void. Therefore, we must keep in view the utility of sicknesses, in order that we may bear them more easily and more calmly."

Just beautiful. Now...try try and live it...

Peaceful Paradise - pic again!

Here you are, about time I posted a photo. Here's what this beauty is stitching up like. This is the first photo in three or four weeks, which is kind of scary. But I only picked it up after the last photo the other day, so that might have something to do with it...

Here you are :)

(click!)

As you can see, 3/4 of the writing on Psalm 99 (100) is done, including the 'wrought in the year of our LORD 2008', and I've started the bottom scene. This is a joy to work on again, I'm loving it. The white and pale purple blob in the middle will be sheep on a purple background eventually, and that's NOT a dog next to the shepherd down the bottom even though my dad is convinced it is!

Good fun. I finished the first skein of 'raven' (the colour used for the lettering) today, which was an achievement, and started the second. There is a LOT of lettering in this piece! Maybe I should edit May's goals to include some definite page goals on this, I've got back into loving it again.

Photopost

Ah yes, the semi-regular photopost of doom.

Firstly, here's Peaceful Paradise as of today - as always, everything here is a clickable thumbnail:

(sorry about the shadow on the side, and the creases!)

I've reached the bottom of the text box, and started working sideways, and dipping into working on the scene down the bottom occasionally. I'm still having so much fun, but I left my pattern at Church yesterday (go me) so I'm working on JOB until Wednesday.

And here you go, here's what I got for my birthday:



Here's the Cross that Pater gave me. It's now hung on the wall in my room, above my bed. Yes, my room is that colour. Yes, it is very pink. I know that :) I've had my room this colour for years and I've yet to go crazy.
Like I said the other day, each of the little 'bubbles' has ground from the Holy Land - rock, chalk, dirt, sand... and yes the sign says INBI not INRI - because is IS the king of the Jews, he didn't just say it! Orthodox crucifixes change that. The budded ends is characteristic of non-Russian Orthodox Crosses, I'm not exactly sure why but I think the three arcs are for the Trinity, which would make sense. Everything is three times for the Trinity with us! The crosses on my Churches all look like this.



These are the cards I've got so far, I always get a few late ones in the post too. From L->R they are from my parents, Troy's parents, my Grandmother and Nona Niki.



My MIL gave me a bunch of fat 1/8th of William Morris fabric. It's lovely stuff, and it's tucked away for something special - and addition to my fabric 'collection' - she says it's a collection, not a stash, stash implies that I have to use it, and I have a lot of fabric that I just like to keep 'cause it's pretty! A lot of it has gold on it too, so nice. And my favourite colours to work with, too - browns and greens!



Nona Niki (my godmother) gave me these - the envelope is from the card, that's my name in Greek on it and I love the clouds! And yay for nummy body scrub that I'm not allergic to.



These are what I also got from Pater - practical gift this time around. Guest bathroom towels for when we get married and they're sooo soft. I love the Greek take on birthday gifts - practical things always win once you get to a certain age. I know that it has its downsides (my friend Jo got pillows for her 18th birthday, lol) but it has a lot of upsides too.

Something completely different, too. I made a quilt for my Personal Project - in the Internation Baccalaureate, when you finish middle school you have to do a PP on something or other. It's often a practical thing, but you have to demonstrate learning. I'd never made a quilt, so a lady from church taught me. This is on our spare bed most of the time, and it's very warm (and got put in pride of place in a bunch of school exhibitions, along with an edwardian costume that another girl made, yay!)



Here's the whole quilt, on a single bed. All done in cotton, and the seams are machine stitched but everything else (applique and embroidery) was done by hand. Anything that's not applique is stitched in a DMC cotton, three strands if I remember right. The embroidery took FOREVER, but is totally worth it!


The first two blocks - the first lines of the poem, and two people, one big one little, holding hands. We deliberately went with a naive style for this, so it's not just that I can't draw (though that's true too!)


These are the 7th and 10th blocks. The dolphin is my favourite of all the embroidered blocks - we photocopies him from a colouring book, enlarged it, and then transferred it onto the design (repeatedly, as it kept wearing off) with dressmaker's chalk and tracing paper. The feet were traced from the feet of a little boy of someone we knew (and he giggled like mad when we did it!)



Finally, these are the last two blocks. That's more or less what my handwriting looks like, though it's a little neater now than it was five years ago. We don't get taught this cursive here, this is american style cursive that I kept from when we lived there (as Australian 'cursive' is really ugly) and still use a lot.

Thanks for looking :)

I finally got sick of sky

...and it's the 2nd weekend of the month, so I took a photo, and got out A Restful Night again :)

Here's Peaceful Paradise as of this afternoon.


I did the commentary on it last post, the only things I've added since I wrote that was some more lettering and sky.

It's looking nice, I just wish I could get the creases out. They come out, eventually - about the same time as I put it back on the q-snaps!

Oh well. I'm back working on A Restful Night and eating as much chocolate and date loaf as possible, before Sunday night. Hope you're all having a good weekend!

Randomosity

The last few days have been...well, different. Saturday I spent in bed, Sunday was long and exhausting but wonderful - Judgement Sunday, the second Sunday before Lent. It was also the last day we got to eat meat before Pascha - Easter, on April 27th. I love the icons for this feast:


Everything there should make sense to most people - it's the icon for the story of the Last Judgement in Matthew 25. To those not used to Orthodox iconography, the two people with Christ (closest to Him) are the Theotokos (Mary) and St John the Baptist. I remember the first time I saw an icon of St John and wondered who it was - it seemed logically to be St John the Baptist, but he had wings! Why was he an angel? It turns out, it's a pun of sorts. Angelos means 'messenger' so it can mean angel, but it can mean another messenger too. No wings in this icon though. The men on thrones either side are Ss Peter and Paul representing the apostles, and the people bowing at His feet are Adam and Eve representing the human race.

Jeremy, Daniel and I went for lunch after Church (and we all had meat, naturally - Jeremy asked for the biggest schnitzel they had, and when the lady figured out we were Orthodox - she was married to a Greek guy - she put ham on it too) and sitting down with a bottle of red Jeremy made a toast to 'a good defence before the dread judgement seat of Christ' - a phrase from the Liturgy, one of the things we ask God for at least once every service. It was an odd toast, but a good one - and thoroughly memorable.

We had a quiz night that night at Church, and my table won, which was fun. I like quiz nights, they're a fun kind of crazy.

I've spent the last few days recovering though. Just settling and stitching. My sister bought her formal dress (formal = prom, minus the politics) yesterday and it's so sweet, rosebud pink. She looks lovely in it.

Here's my weekly update on Peaceful Paradise, anyway. Less got done this week - last week's seems to have been a marathon update!


The first two rows of lettering are totally done now, and I'm working on the rest. Again, I'm getting bogged down in the sky, but I'm alternating a length of thread in that with a length of thread on anything else and that's helping. When I'm not sick of blue I'll often do two lengths. It's worth it, I love the effect that it has with the stars - and the stars are wonderful, so much fun to stitch! The moon is new this week too. And I've just reached a point where I need to stitch an ornament amongst the text, which is nice - always good to stitch on something different. I'm not sure what I'll do if I finish everything else before I finish the sky - I think I'll just start the next page down, while finishing the sky. I learned from last time not to try and just stitch sky, I got so sick of this piece I couldn't look at it for a while!

Angel wings and making progress

I'm exhausted, pushing myself too hard I think. It's only 11, but I'm thinking of going to bed. I'm just...tired. I feel old some nights, even though I'm not even 20. I don't want pity, but every now and then it does hit me what it means to have this.

Some nights I just drag a chair before the icons and sit there with the Psalms and the candle lit, just in peace. I can't get to Church, but I am reminded of the company of Heaven, and that I am not alone. That helps. When I'm too weak to stand long enough to say my prayers it's a bitter pill to swallow.

I sound down here. I'm not, not really. Just so very tired. This too will pass. I've found the Psalms to be a comfort, and I'm trying to get seriously back into reading them.

I had class today, and this time I 'attended' lying down in bed, which helped - I was more alert because I didn't have to fight to be 'up'. With the phone by my side on speakerphone and the whiteboard on my laptop, class was in session and I understood the work, I think. I have an assignment to work on now, and so I'll need to get into working on that soon. I'm starting to get used to having schoolwork again. I'd promised to make pastitsio tonight, but didn't start it until about 5 figuring that I'd get it done in time for dinner. Heh. I forgot that bechamel sauce takes standing there and only working on it, you can't try and cook meat and bechamel sauce at the same time. So that took a while...and then I found out we didn't have parmesan cheese even though Mum had assured me that we did...so she went and bought some...and I got all the 'elements' (pastitsio is like spag bol&lasagna crossed) finished - pasta, bechamel sauce, meatandtomato stuff... and it was 8:30...and it had to cook for an hour...

We bought pizza. I'm going to bake it tomorrow afternoon, and it'll be dinner tomorrow night! It's Wednesday, but I'm not well, so the red meat will do me good. I'm being good, to those eagle eyed people who tell me that if I stick to the Church fasts when I'm sick they'll hang me from the belltower by my ankles! Lent starts soon, that'll be interesting.

Making pastitsio was fun though. If I'm well enough tomorrow I plan to do some baking, we need a bikkie (cookie) binge in the next week or so before lent begins, and I aim to provide plenty to eat! I also want to give a bunch to Dmitri's Mum for feeding us the other night when we were at his house - we had galaktobouriko (think vanilla slice, greek style) and yiros/gyros, home made and wonderful.

I'm trying to be productive. I'm sick of despondency, you can only lie in bed and glare at the world for so long.

Oh yes. I started this post because I wanted to share a picture of Peaceful Paradise, which I've made quite a bit of progress on :)


It's harder to get good photos now, and also I was losing the light, but you get the idea. It's getting BIG! I've almost got all the way across in the border now, just the diagonal section to go (but I can't reach it where the frame is) and I'm happily filling in stars, the sky, the moon (that curved line is part of it) and lettering. There are some pretty ornaments among the text that I get to stitch soon too, which will be fun :)

I especially like the stars, they are fun to stitch, and the angel is awesome. It's nice to have lettering that isn't just plain old Psalm 22 (23 to all you non-Orthodox), it's fun.

Anyway, I'm knocking off. Goodnight all!

I can has photo post?

I can!

I woke up when Mum's alarm clock went off today, so I've been up for hours. I'm glad I went to bed early for me last night, it helped. Going swimming just relaxed everything, I should do it more often. Being weightless = very good for relieving joint pain.

So, we had the Sampler SAL on the HAED BB this weekend, and I stitched Peaceful Paradise - a natural choice given my current obsession with it. My eyes are not focussing properly sometimes (a side effect of my illness that doc doesn't understand, yet) but I just rest them a lot.
Here's the after photo:

Just a little bit of sun-ray and eye left to go, and the top panel of this side will be done. And just a few letters, and the writing will be done for this page too! I've cheated a little and started the writing on the next page where it had colours, as I had the colours already in my needle when I stitched 'his' so I figured I'd be productive. I can't wait to start the next psalm, psalm 23 is lovely but I've heard it so many times it seems cliched on its own. This is staying on the frame for now, at least until next weekend which is the themed SAL (we like SALs, if you hadn't noticed) which is 'animals' this month, so froggy will be coming out to play, if I can tear myself away from my psalms! I really need to take this to show Father one day, he'd like it I think.

And in other photos:
Here's what was in the bag I showed you yesterday, my PIF gift from Sally


And here is a closeup of the little pillow scissor keeper:


Also, I realised this morning how appropriate this is - Sally, did you know that the Forget-Me-Not is the symbol for Chronic Fatigue? CFS is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis, so forget "ME" not. :)

It's lovely, thankyou again. Now I'm off to try and sort out the pile of clothes on my floor, and get ready for my class this afternoon (on the phone)

Stitching and stuff

I've been happily working, and life's found a steady pace.

I went and sorted out correspondence school stuff on Friday, and that's set up - I now have 'classes' on the phone/internet three times a week for 15min-1hr, and work from workbooks mostly. Sounds good to me, now just to rediscover my desk! My subjects are Maths Methods (academic maths, but without the stress of the top tier math), Studies of Society (sociology YES), and Australian History (love love love history). So this should be good.

Today's the Sunday of the Pharisee and the Publican in the Church - the Gospel reading is really short, so I'll post it. It's a good story, even if you're not religious:

The Lord said this parable, "Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.' But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me a sinner!' I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted."

And here's the icon (which I really like):


So, it's one of the three Sundays leading up to Lent in the East. This one reminds us not to be too proud of ourselves, especially in our sacrifices and fasting - which is what we do during Lent. So, a fast free week (usually we eat vegan on Wednesday and Friday), and it was a beautiful homily this morning. Jeremy's away visiting his family (his Dad just had an operation) but I did get to see Nona (godmother) Nikki, and my parents came with me and seemed to like it.

Yesterday was just sleepy. Nothing much happened, we just hung around, and today was Church, and now I'm exhausted. Troy and I have discovered that if he gets to the knots in my muscles (which are really deep down, and he has a knack for finding) that the stabbing pains don't affect me so much, and so he did that last night before sleep (I fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow) but it hurt a lot and I had a pillow I was hugging tight. I'm glad he did it though.

And tonight...well, tonight I'm just resting. Veg-ing and watching tv, So You Think You Can Dance is on tonight, and I plan to settle down with my stitching and rest.

Oh yeah, I took a before picture for Peaceful Paradise, too. So this is what it looked like Thursday night:

A Peaceful Picture

Finally I cobbled together the charger and the cord from another charger, which miraculously fit, and I have a camera again. YAY! So here's a picture for you:



Apologies for the stray threads :)

Today's overcast and grey, but I've got a cd of chant on and I'm settled down stitching A Restful Night. It's peaceful today.

Peaceful Paradise and loukoumia

Well...photos again. I'm not all that well, so it won't be a hugely wordy post, but you can have photos instead.

Here is what I cooked earlier tonight - loukoumia (aka turkish delight but DON'T call it that around the greeks!) which I found a recipe for cooking in the microwave - go figure :)

Okay ;) That is the before pic, all the ingredients. The loukoumia itself is in the fridge, hopefully it will turn out good!

and here is Peaceful Paradise after the Sampler SAL. I've worked on it lots today, but you'll get a new photo next Monday, unless I complete a section or something.

I'm missing the WDW Whiskey for the sun rays, angel wings and halo, and some of the lettering - God willing I'll get it soon.

Since this photo was taken there's a lot more of the sky done, along with the lettering for the first three lines finished, and I've started the border down the side. So boring, but it's satisfying to look at the progress. I've also started the next line, which has an ornament under it - yay, something new to stitch! It's a flower with a green background and it looks like fun.

Otherwise I have just been practicing my greek, which I've sorted into proper notebooks, and sleeping. And driving a little. Life goes on.